Day 34 - Dubrovnik - Cruise Ship MSC Fantasia

---

Dubrovnik is another place we have been looking forward to seeing and arriving around 10.30am to find another 7 cruise ships in port we thought this will be a nightmare and it was. Our ship had to use its own boats to get passengers ashore and you would think that they would be used to this doing it every week but oh no it was a shambles and it took 2 hours to get everyone off the boat leaving most of us with only 2 hours at the most before we had to be back on the ship. We grabbed the first taxi we could find as our ship had arrived about 20 mins drive from the town, the trip in was fine and the cabbie dropped us of at the front gates so we headed off into the throng of people. We finally got through the gates after about 20 mins and found the queue for tickets to climb the walls.



The queue could have taken a good hour to get through, it was very very hot and we decided to flag the walls and thought a wander through the old town might be nice, wrong, it was a nightmare! The town is very small and we were told there were 12000 tourists off the boats in town, so literally fighting through the crowds for an hour or so was enough we decided to head back. Finally getting out from the walls we found still more people trying to get taxis, busses or any form of transport to get out of dodge. The ship was due to sail at 2.00pm, the last shuttle boat was at 1.30 so everyone was in a panic. I stood in a line with around 200 people in it for 10 mins and not a single taxi arrived, this was not working so while I stayed in line Pam went in search of an MSC tour bus, luck would have it there was one over the road, so we just pushed onto that bus and left town, very stressful. So Dubrovnik, seems like a very cool place but still have not really seen it and would like to return one day to Croatia with more time and in a different season. Last night on the boat tonight and it was farewell to our new found dinner friends.



The cruise, well we have to say the MSC Fantasia is a great boat, the food is excellent, the staff great and the entertainment first class, the only let down was the shore stops were too short and a little disorganised, other than that top marks to MSC. We would certainly cruise with them again.

---